In 2011, Fine Gael and Labour took control of Ireland after more than a decade of rule by Fianna Fail.
Their respective leaders, Enda Kenny and Eamonn Gilmour, quickly set about attacking families and traditional Irish society. One of their first orders of business was to offer a triumphant welcome to Queen Elizabeth II in a repulsive display of colonial subservience, likewise they celebrated the visits of Barack Obama and Xi Jinping. In conjunction with this, they pursued a deliberate policy of anti Catholicism, shutting down the Vatican Embassy out of spite and working with the far left (including Democratic Party staff member Katherine Zappone) to create the myth that the Catholic Church, not the British Empire, had in fact oppressed Ireland for centuries.
This was all a distraction from the fact that Fine Gael and Labour were both working extremely hard to make life more difficult for families, by slashing help for those with children, maintaining a Universal Social Charge and making home ownership and marriage as unfeasible as possible.
The Irish left, for their part, briefly organised protests against water charges and other austerity measures but quickly rallied around austerity once Same Sex Marriage and abortion were introduced.
Now, that brutal decade has paid off for the government, with their efforts successfully reducing birth rates by 22%, according to new CSO statistics.
In 2011, it was 74,033 children born as opposed to 58,443 in 2021.
This dramatic reduction has seen the fertility rate reduced from 2.01% to 1.7%, which is well below replacement level.
The average age of mothers was pushed from 31.8 years to 33.3 years, with forced delayed motherhood benefitting the government’s recent foray into working with lucrative IVF firms in Irish hospitals.
Most interestingly, the number of births outside marriage was highest in the deprived Limerick City while the central point of regime power and wealth in Dun Laoghaire had by far the least amount of births outside marriage, further cementing the fact that the low birth rates are an economic decision for many.
With abortions hitting 6,000 per year in the first two years of legalisation, the number of births is set to continue to decline as the government continues to prioritise large global corporations rather than their own citizens.
Compare this Hungary, where those under 25 and those with four children pay no tax. In the space of ten years, they have increased birth rates by 25%, increased female employment by 20% and reduced abortions by 50%.
Irish people can keep believing in the boogey men stories about Eastern Europe or they can start asking why their government withholds what Viktor Orban gives to his people.